France

Materials from France

Gran, You’ve Got Mail!

ANNABELLE’S FATHER WANTS her to master her computer keyboard. Annabelle thinks the chore will be more tolerable if she writes letters to someone. She chooses Gran, her great-grandmother. Of course, Gran is most definitely not online, so Annabelle prints and mails her letters off. At first, Gran takes her time answering—and she’s in the habit of repeating herself—but soon the two are keeping up a steady correspondence. Letter by letter, a true, tender friendship evolves. Annabelle and Gran talk about everything: parents, movies, school, the past and the present. When Annabelle divulges a big secret—the reason she and her best friend are no longer speaking—Gran remembers a similar situation. And when Gran needs foot surgery, Annabelle begins to worry.

Marie: An Invitation to Dance: Paris, 1775

In 1775, young Marie lives in Paris and dreams of becoming a ballerina. But her family is of modest means and her future is set–convent school, marriage, and children–unless she can find a wealthy patron to sponsor her. One special evening, a surprise audition in a most exciting and original place changes Marie’s destiny.

Airman

Conor Broekhart was born to fly. In fact, legend has it that he was born flying, in a hot air balloon at the Paris World’s Fair.In the 1890s Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king’s daughter, Princess Isabella. But the boy’s idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a deadly conspiracy against the king. When Conor tries to intervene, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life, as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions. There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So Conor passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines on the prison walls. The months turn into years; but eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies.

Vasco: Leader of the Tribe

Like all the rats in his tribe, Vasco loves nothing more than to scurry around the harbor in search of discarded fish. But one day he discovers that the members of his tribe have died under mysterious circumstances. Now Vasco is alone until he reluctantly joins some fearsome rats who live deep in the sewers. Among them, he makes some loyal friends and some daunting enemies. And, as he begins to understand that humans are masterminding the extinction of all the rats in the city, Vasco sees only one solution: to flee aboard a ship. Courageous, humble, and determined, Vasco does his best to guide his exiled companions to a faraway land where they can live peacefully. But in struggling to establish a new tribe, and to find a place they can call home, Vasco must endure countless dangers and rise to many challenges.

The Scarlet Stockings

As an infant, Daphne was abandoned on the doorstep of an all-girls school. Now, at thirteen, she longs to discover the truth about her past and to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a prima ballerina. When a book containing a tantalizing riddle and a magical pair of stockings arrive, her dreams of glory and fame are suddenly within her grasp. Daphne is poised to win an audition for the Ballet Splendide in Paris. But will the magic be enough to help her overcome her childhood demons of loneliness and insecurity?